Issue 08 - June 2012

Another fantastic guest writer this month. I am very happy to welcome Stephen Few (bio here) to the newsletter. Stephen is certainly one of the most recognized experts in data visualization in the world today. He is an author, with several books on the topic, a great speaker, and, as I can testify, an amazing instructor. Stephen discusses the common pitfalls of dashboard design. Never believe for a second that data visualization in general, and dashboard design in particular, are easy to do well. It is actually very hard work. Through this earlier text, published for the first time in 2007, Stephen exposes some of his foundational ideas, ideas that have now become more and more accepted, although a lot of bad stuff unfortunately constitutes the mainstream. I know what he says will someday prevail. I’m so looking forward to that day.

As for me, I offer a brief text on the complex question of the political context of measurement, which is I think a very important question too rarely discussed in analytics circles. I believe ignoring that aspect of organizational life, and how it can deeply impact measurement, is a very common mistakes among analysts.

Welcome for the eighth time. I am just absolutely thrilled this month to have Stephen Few as our guest writer. Stephen is simply the most influential thinker in the world on data visualization. If you think you know how to make graphs, and never read his books, well you don’t! I had the amazing experience … Continuer

The Rise of the Dashboard Dashboards can provide a powerful solution to information overload, but only when they’re properly designed. Most dashboards used in businesses today fail. At best they deliver only a fraction of the insight that is needed to monitor performance. This is a travesty, because effective dashboard design can be achieved by … Continuer

The Digital Analytics field is certainly one vastly dominated by technical discussions. Over 90% of what I see on blogs and forums is about how to do X with tool Y. Or how to tag a site properly. Don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against technical discussions, because they are mightily important. All I … Continuer